Peru was settled in 1857 by pioneers who named it for Peru, Illinois, with Missouri River ferry service arriving in 1855 and the railroad following in 1875. The town’s defining institution, Peru State College, traces to December 2, 1865, when it was founded as Mount Vernon School; it became Nebraska’s first state-supported college in 1867 as the Nebraska State Normal School, a distinction the college still markets as “Nebraska’s First College.”

Peru is home to about 648 residents (2020 Census), with Peru State enrolling roughly 1,492 students as of fall 2024 and having won the 1990 NAIA Division II football national championship. Herbert Brownell Jr., U.S. Attorney General under President Eisenhower, was born in Peru.

Peru, population 648, is home to Peru State College — founded in 1865 and Nebraska’s first state-supported college — making it a small college town on the Missouri River.